Memphis to Join the Big East?

From Brett McMurphy (CBS) - According to sources, Memphis and the Big East are in the final stages of negotiations that would make them an all-sports member starting in 2013. Memphis would be the 3rd Conference USA member, joining SMU, Houston, and UCF, to join the Big East. Big East is also adding Boise State and San Diego State as football-only in 2013 and Navy in 2015.

Listen to Big East Conference Announcement Live!

East + West = East! Get it? It's manifest destiny!

http://bigeast.org/BIGEASTTV/LiveEventsSchedule.aspx

Big East Will Announce the Death of Football Today at 5 PM

As I'm sure many of you have already heard, the Big East has come to agreements with five teams and is prepared to formally introduce these schools this evening at 5:00. Among these schools are three full members, Houston, Central Florida, and Southern Methodist; and two football-only members, Boise State and San Diego State. While some may see this as a good thing for the conference just to be adding teams, you can't help but imagine this is a pretty big downgrade for the BCS as a whole. Let's look at these teams coming in after the jump.

Big East Set to Expand Tomorrow

According to Brett McMurphy of CBS Sports, the Big East is set to add Boise State, San Diego State, Houston, UCF, and SMU to the Big East conference on Wednesday according to sources reporting to CBS Sports. They would officially join the conference in 2013.

Boise State and San Diego State would join as football-only members while Houston, UCF, and SMU would join for all sports according to previous reports.

Thoughts on Big East Contacting UCF

From CBS Sports - News broke last night that the Big East Conference has already contacted UCF. An official invitation has not been extended to them as of now, but dialogue is open and an invitation could come soon.

The Big East is also talking to other programs such as Air Force and Navy, but no invitations have been extended to them either. So what does this mean for USF?

More Big East Conference Talk

From Star-Ledger - The Big Eat presidents and chancellors held another conference call today and according to a statement, the Big East conference appears to be considering a 12-team football conference model.

With Pitt and Syracuse bolting for the ACC, the Big East could add more football teams without adding more basketball teams if they take schools as football-only members (remind anyone of what Notre Dame does?)

The Big East's Manifest Destiny

Lately, I've been having many a disagreement with some fellow Big East bloggers on Big East Expansion. But really, who doesn't disagree on it? There seems to be no right answer. If you add some teams, you have to think about kicking some out. If you don't kick them out, you'll probably have to rearrange the way a lot of the sports are played. And of course there's always the issues with money.

So who's right? Maybe none of us are. Maybe there is no right answer. There are literally thousands of possibilities out there, but luckily for me, I write a blog, so I have an outlet for my thoughts and opinions.

I've spent a while putting together a collection of my thoughts on Big East expansion, and you can read them here after the jump.

Welcome, Misplaced UCF Fans!

Recently we installed this application on the site's sidebar that allows us to see where the majority of our readers are accessing our site. It also allows us to see how they accessed the site, whether it be coming to the page directly, coming from a link on another page, or by searching something in Google. I'll be perfectly honest, I am absolutely fascinated with this thing. I can't look away from it or close the tab that has it.

Since I've been able to see what people are actually trying to find when they stumble across our page, I see now that many web surfers are searching "Big East Expansion" on Google or Bing (I actually don't know anyone who uses Bing, but apparently people do use it. That's right, reader in Greenville, North Carolina, I can see you searching "ECU Big East Expansion" on Bing!). Anyway, it's become more and more clear that the internet is cruel and ironic, as it has decided to bring up our site to the people who are searching "UCF Big East Expansion" on whatever search engine they are using. So for you in Orlando who came across this by Googling that very phrase (and I know you're doing it now, don't deny it), welcome! Unfortunately for you, however, I don't work for ESPN, so I am not going to tell you what you want to hear to increase my readership.

If you really have been keeping up with my take on Big East expansion, then you're quite aware by now that I am not a supporter or adding more than one Conference USA team to make the jump up to the BCS level. UCF is not that C-USA team. I'm really twisting my own arm to say that I want even one team from that conference, but if I had to choose one, I'd choose Southern Mississippi. They just seem like a more viable option right now than UCF or East Carolina or Houston. I want to make it very clear that, contrary to what many of you over in the East believe, this IS NOT an anti-UCF blog. I've got better things to do than talk about UCF. I will, however, take whatever opportunity I can to clarify that the Big East is trying to improve themselves by making additions to their league. Adding mediocre mid-level teams is not a prudent move for a conference that is trying to regain the respect of the rest of the BCS leagues in the country.